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Monthly Archives: February 2013

To the bunker!

So, work at temp0rary HQ continues at a fair pace… main focus of our activity is still the Tempting Failure performance on April 6th (see below) which has be spiralling beautifully into the realms of the incredible as we add more collaborators to the performance. We’ve pretty much lined up my dream team for this, and can now confirm that Si Ogden  – also known as Siytek – is assisting with the insanely over-ambitious sensor rig for the performance, Sarge from Metal Fatigue will be helping with some of the, er, meatier technical aspects, and previous label-mate and artist Marcus Lanyon will be involved with the audiovisual performance too. Along with Hellen from Traumata, I don’t think we could have put together a better team.

To further level things up, I’ve been asked to contribute to the panel discussion at the ‘Sunday Service’ on the day after Tempting Failure along with performers NW, Bioni and others. Come and see my sleep-deprived post-performance discussion for just an additional fiver – and there’s plenty of other discussions taking part if that doesn’t take your fancy..!

There’s also another date in the diary – temp0rary will be exhibiting at Bristol Mini Maker Faire on Saturday March 23rd. Here, I’ll be previewing some of the technology that we’ve developed for the Tempting Failure performance and letting the visitors have a play with the equipment. Which brings me on to the next exciting development…

I’ve now managed to hack / circuit bend a MindFlex toy – in its original state, this device lets you control a ball through a maze by reading your EEG brain waves. By modifying the previous light-to-MIDI rig I built and used for the Mayan Survivors Apocalypse Party at the end of last year, I’ve managed to create a way of  making music with your mind! Here are a couple of example videos of the work in progress:


 Finally, Adrian and I will be out & about at Kinetica and Photon 1.0 this Saturday, so if you see us around, come and say hello!

Too many cats, not enough bag…

I’ve just come back from a weekend of meetings, discussions, research and generally awesome company and currently feel a bit exploded in the brain yet full of energy for future developments. Whilst I am a fan of The Big Reveal, I don’t think it’ll hurt to let you know that for our forthcoming show at Tempting Failure on Saturday 6th April, we are working with a selection of incredible performers and technical crew to bring you what I confidently predict will be the biggest and most ambitious temp0rary performance to date. I’ll be announcing all of the collaborators over the coming weeks as we begin to document the process.

First to confirm their involvement is Hellen Traumata, a performer in her own right and one-third of performance troupe SUKA OFF who is collaborating closely with us to bring the performance into a whole exciting new realm. Hellen immediately seemed to grasp what we wanted to do and suggested some exciting new developments for the piece, and we are thrilled to be working with her.

We’d also like to extend our thanks to Mark Firman from City University London who went above & beyond the call of duty to help us collect some visual elements for the forthcoming performance in the deepest darkest recesses of the hallowed ground he oversees. We are hoping we can repay the favour in a loud and educational manner in the near future, but for now that cat must regrettably stay in the bag…

Tickets for Tempting Failure are now available here and as the video below shows, it’ll be worth the price of admission just to see the perfromance space – however, I’ve had a sneak preview of the other plans, and I can assure you it’ll be an event like no other you’ve experienced…

Adrian and I also spent the weekend doing a spot of R&D at both the Light Show exhibit at the Hayward and the Google Web Lab in the basement of the Science Museum, both of which I recommend.

I can assure you our performance will be much messier than both of these…

Plan? Was there a plan?

January is ordinarily a time when I take things easy, consigned to the fact that I can’t really get my new years’ resolutions underway until February. That didn’t really happen this year, and instead, occasionally propelled on by bouts of weather –induced cabin fever, we got our teeth into plotting and scheming for 2013.

So, the first bit of awesome news is that temp0rary have been asked to close the Tempting Failure arts festival in Bristol on Saturday 6th April. We are planning something utterly unique for this performance; I’m utterly delighted that everyone we have asked to collaborate with has agreed so far. I don’t want to give too much away but this one-off performance will feature me & Adrian collaborating with performers who have done work for Torture Garden, an electronics wiz, and an alternative fashion photographer with an amazing portfolio of work. Oh, and we’re off to visit a secret underground location in London to collect some footage for the show this weekend too…

We’ve got several bids for other events in the pipeline too – however, none of them are gigs at present and include instead a proposal for an interactive theatre piece, a ‘renegade science’ lecture, a workshop and demonstration, and an installation. We’ll let you know if any of these have definite dates and places in the future.

I also put my inventor’s lab-coat on this month and build my first electronics project from scratch – it’s a video effects unit that allows us to scramble and remix VGA video signals into a selection of circuit-bent and broken images – looking forward to trying this out in a live performance soon  in the near future. Here’s a short clip of it destroying some video:

And then there’s the talk of working towards an A/V-enhanced burlesque performance too, and more collaborations in the pipeline for later in the year.

All of which sounds like a perfectly viable alternative to sleep to me…